What is the purpose of life? What is my purpose on earth? How do I find my purpose and fulfill it? These are all age old questions. But how do we know there is a purpose for all of us?

 

I used to question myself about my purpose pretty much every day for many years in my early twenties. It usually arose from a feeling of desperate sense of purposelessness. When life was less fun, when the days were spent doing nothing or achieving nothing.

So, if it was non achievement that led to question my purpose, then I must look deeper in to what achievement meant for me.

Ask the right questions from yourself to figure out your unique purpose.

If like me, you find achievement as a need for purpose, know that every person’s definition of achievement is different. This means that the purpose is a mind construct according to one’s desires, expectations.

What are your desires and expectations of life?

Life is two dimensional and therefore we have two lives to live. One is the Life with which we are born, the Original life.

The other is the individual life, which we have constructed for ourselves upon the original life. Let me say it differently.

The life we have received has no form, no qualities. It is the universal, natural and original life.

But one cannot live it without constructing an individual form. Without an individuality life will be like a vegetable. So you construct an individuality, which is your personality. It has self or the ego as its center.

So, on one hand you are formless, and on the other hand you are an individual. Am I making sense? Life demands that you be fair to both the dimensions. If you confine to one dimension your life will be a fragment.

This is also why most of us crave for physical things and traditional achievement, like getting a raise, high performance at work, recognition while still yearning for a quieter, centered, slow, peaceful lifestyle.

Well, the next question should be, how can I be fair to my individual life as well as the original life?

For individual life, fulfill its needs and expectations. Fulfill your physical needs, security needs, social needs such as recognition, acceptance, and emotional need like love, self-esteem, and sense of achievement, power and self-actualization needs.

Then, what are the needs of the Original life?

Its demand is ‘Live fully’ ‘Experience the joy of pure life,’ ‘Stay in tune with the Universal Life’. The original life is pushing you to experience the Highest Bliss of life.

Know that some are more bent to individual life. Some are more bent to Original life. It also depends according one’s stage of life. Find your place of balance. However, in my experience, the ultimate life fulfillment comes through living the original life.

 

Hope this helps you see the question of purpose in a new light. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment and share your insights. How did you come to learn your purpose? If you are still in the process of uncovering your purpose, what are the questions you are asking yourself?

With lots of love and courage to sail on your soul journey,